Chicago Sun Times: The woman at the center of Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to reform the police
Former federal prosecutor Lori Lightfoot — the face of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department in the wake of the release of the Laquan McDonald police shooting video — is catching flak from all sides.
Emanuel appointed Lightfoot, 52, last June to head the Chicago Police Board, which is now leading the search for a new police superintendent following Emanuel’s firing of Supt. Garry McCarthy.
Then, in December, amid the furor following the release of the video, he named her to head the Special Commission on Police Accountability he created to review the police department and make recommendations.
Chicago Sun Times: CTA execs ride the pension express
The Chicago Transit Authority has spent nearly $94 million over 15 years on a retirement program that has allowed former CTA executives to start collecting lucrative pensions in their late 40s and early 50s while also getting paychecks from other government jobs, a Chicago Sun-Times and Better Government Association investigation has found.
Nearly 500 former transit executives or their survivors collected a total of more than $7 million from the “CTA supplemental retirement plan” in 2014, the most recent year for which records were available.
Originally intended to supplement CTA executives’ regular pensions with modest additional benefits, the CTA board — then chaired by Carole L. Brown, who’s now the chief financial officer in Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration — changed the supplemental plan in 2008 to allow dozens of those employees to retire early.
Chicago Tribune: Emanuel tries to resurrect O'Hare express train plan
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is trying to resurrect Chicago’s long-elusive plan for an express train from downtown to O’Hare International Airport by hiring an engineering firm to look at possible routes and costs.
It’s a preliminary step, and the Emanuel administration isn’t sure who would pay for the massive project, which could run into the billions of dollars.
Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans said Friday the city will look for a private company to cover construction costs and operate the system, but it’s likely public money would go into building stations at the airport and downtown if the project moves ahead. There also might be one other station along the line, she said, if it looks like an opportunity exists somewhere between downtown and the airport to spur development and increase ridership. Evans would not offer any guarantee that additional tax money wouldn’t be needed for the project.
Chicago Tribune: S&P downgrades College of DuPage credit rating
The College of DuPage‘s credit rating was downgraded two notches Friday in response to recent sanctions against the school and vitriolic infighting among trustees.
In lowering the rating to AA from AAA, rating agency Standard & Poor’s noted the college had recently been placed on a two-year probation by its accreditation agency — a rare reprimand in higher education. It also cited “unstable board governance and management turnover.”
“The negative outlook reflects the at least 1 in 3 chance that we could lower the rating further within the two-year outlook period, given the uncertainty surrounding the college’s probation status and unsettled board turmoil,” Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Blake Yocomsaid in a statement.